


laughter is the best medicine

by shishiswordsman



Series: an alliance is like friendship, right? (10 days of lawlu 2018) [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: 10 days of LawLu, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, Luffy Being Luffy, M/M, Post-Dressrosa, law's pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-15 01:55:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14781410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shishiswordsman/pseuds/shishiswordsman
Summary: In the aftermath of Doflamingo's fall, Law should be at the heart of the party, but he can't bring himself to join the others.Luckily, Luffy brings the party to him.[Written for 10 Days of LawLu, day 1: Laughter]





	laughter is the best medicine

The others are celebrating.

They have reason to — Doflamingo has fallen along with his birdcage. He’s gone, on his way to Impel Down, and Law will never again have to fear a cloudy sky.

This day has been over a decade in the making, the single thing Law’s focused on and planned for, and he knows should be drinking his ass off with Roronoa or talking to their new allies, having fun. He should be celebrating their victory like everyone else.

He can’t bring himself to revel in their triumph, though, not when Sengoku's words still ring in his ears and he can feel a wooden chest around him, limiting him, keeping him in place. Dressrosa is a known for its hot weather, and yet where Law sits on the lower deck of the Going Luffy feels cold, like sundown on a winter island.

Law can make out laughter, singing, and shrieks of joy coming from the main deck. They don’t sound all that real, and they certainly don’t feel like they belong in the same space as the heavy cloud of gloom that hangs heavy over Law. Maybe it’s he who doesn’t belong.

For something that has truly been thirteen years in the making, the aftermath of Dressrosa's fall tastes an awful lot like ash on his tongue. Compared to the thousand and one ways Law's pictured this going down in his mind, watching from the sidelines while his ally beats Doflamingo to the curb is lacklustre, a pebble among jewels.

If Law wasn't so numb to it all, he'd be angry — at himself, not Straw Hat. It should have been him who dealt the finishing blow, but he let himself get too beaten up to even stand. Just replacing Luffy's body with a small stone so he wouldn't get hurt from the fall had almost allowed blackness to breach his vision. Law clenches his hands into fists, and a sharp lance of pain shoots up his spine. His arm feels like it’s on fire, and he clutches it with his good hand, teeth clenching against a hiss of pain.

All he’s earned in this fight was wounds and weakness. Though he’s on the winning side, his allies did all the heavy lifting, and the knowledge of that makes something in Law _ache._

Lost in thought as he is, Law doesn’t realise Luffy’s found him until a warm weight settles beside him, bandaged fingers poking at his side. By the time Law’s mind catches up to this, Luffy’s already said his name twice.

“Torao, you’re missing the party!” Straw Hat calls again, this time waving a hand in front of Law’s face for good measure. “Are you dead or something?”

Law blinks a couple of times, works hard to refocus his gaze on Luffy. His ally is a messy pile of bandages and cheer beside him, peering at Law with big round eyes and a grin to rule them all. Law has to backtrack to remember what Luffy asked him, and he huffs. “I’m alive, Straw Hat-ya. Thank you for checking up on me.”

“Sure thing. Why aren’t you at the party?”

“I needed a moment alone, to think.”

“Oh. Good thing I brought these, then!” Luffy chirps, and then he’s shoving a bottle of sake in Law’s hand. He doesn’t leave, though, and Law doubts he ever registered that Law’d wished to be left alone. Luffy rarely listens to things like that, and Law’s had to learn it the hard way.

“Are you hurt?” Luffy’s head is slightly tilted to the side, his mouth opened it a small, confused ‘o’. “Do you need a doctor?”

“No.”

Luffy looks even more confused. “So you’re okay, then?”

Law says nothing to that, because he doubts Luffy would understand how he can be fine physically and wounded at the same time. He sighs instead, focusing on how cool the glass of the sake bottle feels against his fingertips.

Luffy seems to take his silence as an answer, for he takes a long swig of his own drink — juice, Law notes — and starts talking. He talks about the fight and how happy he is about Gear 4th working so well against actual pirates, as he’s only ever tested it on wild animals and _how cool is that, Torao, Mingo flew through a building_ —

Law hums a non-committal tune whenever he remembers, but Luffy hardly seems deterred.

How did Luffy move on from Marineford so completely in two years? It's been thirteen years for Law, and yet he still sometimes feels paralyzed by the weight of what happened. He should be better, should know better than to dwell.

His emotions ran rampant knowing he was so close to Doflamingo, so close to either death or triumph. Law knows that, and admits it. He was blinded by a lust for blood and retribution, and the weight of his ambition was big enough to drag him down. He got careless, too reckless, and he almost lost his arm and his life for it.

And so, Straw Hat Luffy slayed the demon Law’s wanted to take down all of his pirate career.

Luffy took that burden of hatred and pain and used it as a weapon, tempered it into a righteous rage that burned hot enough to blast through Doflamingo’s defences. He didn’t need to do that — Law certainly didn’t ask him to — but still Luffy’d taken one look at Law and it’d been like Law was transparent, naked under his judgement.

And somehow, Luffy had understood the parts that mattered.

The bottle of sake in his hand is no longer cool. Law doesn't remember taking a single sip, but he must have; the warmth in his chest and cheeks and the blur around the edges of his mind can’t be from anything else. Luffy nudges his side, grins and starts babbling about something inane, and Law watches his lips move with idle fascination.

He doesn’t realise he’s talking until he hears himself saying, “You really are fascinating, Straw Hat-ya.”

Luffy stops mid-sentence, one corner of his mouth slowly curling into a lopsided smile. He seems so unbothered by Law’s sudden interruption that Law finds himself suspecting Luffy knew all along that he didn’t listen to a single word he rambled. “Yeah? How so?”

Law doesn’t really know how to be more specific, so he yanks Luffy’s beloved straw hat down over his eyes with his good hand. Luffy giggles, and Law finds himself smiling as well. “Thank you,” he continues, mostly to fill the silence. The words are hollow, almost mechanical. “Truly, I’m in your debt as an ally now. Once we regroup with my crew on Zou we can begin to discuss a strategy on taking down Kaido.”

Luffy grins confidently. “Kaido, Shmaido,” he mocks, sounding all too gleeful for someone who just made a joke out of an Emperor. “I don’t care about the plans and whatever. I kicked Mingo’s ass because we’re nakama, and he hurt you. So he deserved to get his ass kicked.”

Luffy says that with such confidence and cheer that Law can’t help but believe him, and an invisible weight lifts from his shoulders. “Thank you,” he repeats, because he feels he needs to. “Doflamingo’s defeat is something I’ve worked towards accomplishing for years, now. You helped me make it happen.”

“No biggie,” Luffy dismisses, like beating a Warlord was nothing. His hand lifts to the scar on his chest, and his eyes take on a distant look for all of two seconds before he’s smiling again. “I owed you one, anyway. Now we’re even.”

“Yeah,” Law agrees. “We’re even.”

Luffy laughs brightly and throws his bottle of juice as high as he can, which is considerably high. When it comes down, it crashes against the wooden deck with a resounding crack, and Luffy laughs even louder. “Throw yours, Torao!” he commands.

Law meets eyes with him and smirks. It’s hard to stay in the dark when Luffy’s presence is so bright, so uplifting. Law empties what little remains of his sake and throws his bottle in the air. When it breaks against the planks, Luffy grins happily.

“That was great!”

Law’s inclined to agree. He looks at Luffy and gives a little smile. Luffy has this oddly serious look of concentration in his eye, like he’s deciding between doing something or not, what —

Luffy’s lips are chapped and warm against his, stretched to a grin at the corners, and Law’s heart stops, his brain stops, _everything—_ Luffy just kissed him. Without warning or an invitation, he _kissed him._

What

 _Whatwhatwh_ at

What _whatwhatw_ hatwhat _whatwhat_ WHAT?

After enough time has passed for Law’s heart and brain to stop and restart again, Luffy breaks the kiss, his breath washing over Law’s chin as he hesitates before pulling away. He looks at Law with an expression Law’s rarely seen on his features before. He almost looks uncertain.

“Why did you do that?” Law asks, more accusingly than he meant to, shocked as he is. His lips feel cold without Luffy’s warmth.

“I wanted to,” Luffy says casually. “Did Torao not want me to? Usopp said you would...”

It’s so absurd, so irrational and kind of rude and so incredibly _Luffy,_ Law doesn’t know what to think. Laughter bubbles from Law’s chest, and he doesn’t have it in him to hold it at bay. The sound that comes out from him is disbelieving and giddy to a point where it almost borders on hysteria, but it’s still laughter.

“What the fuck,” he sputters in between peals of incredulous laughter. “You’re insane, Straw Hat-ya, no one just _does_ that, not to me…”

Not to the Surgeon of Death, intimidating, dangerous, reclusive —

Not to Trafalgar D. Water Law, with poison in his veins and splotches on his skin —

Not to him, not when he’s made a point of keeping everyone away.

Luffy doesn’t seem to have read the memo.

Luffy’s wild giggles join with his laughter, and Luffy’s hand finds his. He squeezes Law’s fingers, and it’s his injured arm, it hurts like a bitch. Law squeezes back tighter. When they calm down, Luffy’s staring intensely at Law, and Law doesn’t know what to think.

He sighs. “You’re one of a kind, Straw Hat-ya. I should have stabbed you.”

Luffy’s grin turns cheeky. “But you didn’t.”

“No,” Law says, his mind already whirling through hundreds and hundreds of ideas on what this kiss could mean, what they are now, what he should do. Dressrosa and self-hatred get thrown aside for now, drowned under a swarm of butterflies headed directly to his stomach, and Law doubts the flush on his cheeks is solely because of the sake, anymore. He decides that he’s going to have as much luck in trying to teach a sea king chess as he will trying to predict Luffy’s whims.

After a while of intense over-thinking, Law allows Luffy to drag them both back to the party. With Luffy’s hand in his and sake running in his veins, heat permeates Law’s skin and makes his legs feel like jelly.

They're going to have a long talk about this later, when there are less distractions for them both and Law can actually string two thoughts together without tripping on them. The weight of his past still drags him down, but it's easier to forget when someone's already shoving a new tankard of sake in his hand and Luffy's laughter rings in his ears. At that moment, Law knows that one day he will think back on this day and not feel like the memories will tear him in two. In the meantime he’s surrounded by friends, and Law’s cheeks are going hurt from smiling.

Doflamingo’s fallen. Corazon’s been avenged, and Law is free.

 _He would want me to be happy,_ Law thinks, sees Cora’s radiance mirrored in Luffy’s. _So that’s what I’ll do my best to be._

**Author's Note:**

> 26 minutes late asdfsgfdsa, happy lawlu week guys :D
> 
> This work was a collab with [Rei the Rat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rei_the_Rat/pseuds/Rei_the_Rat), who wrote Luffy's point of view based on how I wrote Law's here. It was nice to work with you!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و


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